Linux Distributions Agree on Standards

Community-built software and community-built standards are two sides of the same coin. Standards help ensure that the freedom to invent, the essence of open source and of Linux, doesn't compromise the ability to write software that works together effectively.

Way back in 1997, a group of Linux
software developers were pondering what could be done to circumvent
the minor but troubling variations between the different Linux
distributions. Not only that, but they were also contending with
differences between versions of a single Linux distribution.

For the group's free software developers, the issue was
finding the time to build new functionality and enhancements rather
than spending hours verifying that their software worked on all the
Linux distributions.

For the non-free software developers, the issue was the same,
but they also had paying customers to placate and employees to take
care of. Something had to be done.

Fortunately, almost everyone agreed, from upstream authors to
Linux distributions to users. Soon thereafter the Linux Standard
Base (LSB) Project was formed, with Alan Cox designing the web
site, Bruce Perens taking the leadership role and Jon “maddog”
Hall offering guidance. Things seemed fine, with Linus Torvalds
behind the effort, but this group of pioneers didn't realize just
how huge a project they had signed on to. Not only did they need to
create a standard that would meet the needs of developers,
distributions, businesses and users, but they had to make it really
work, and they only had one chance to do it right.

Fast-forward to the year 2000. The LSB was at version 0.02
and was being approached by a group of developers wanting advice
for creating a Linux internationalization standard. After a few
discussions it was apparent that a new format was needed, something
that would bring in more resources to both efforts while allowing
them to remain independent and community-led. This was the genesis
of the Free Standards Group.

The Free Standards Group is a California nonprofit
corporation dedicated to accelerating the use and acceptance of
open-source technologies through the development, application and
promotion of standards.

Soon after its founding in late 2000, the Free Standards
Group acted as a galvanizer for free and open-source developers and
the IT industry alike. Activities around the development of the LSB
and Openi18n, the Open Internationalization Initiative, really
began to take off. By the close of 2001, both groups had completed
version 1.0 of their standards and were confident they would meet
with widespread adoption. This confidence was primarily because the
targeted adopters were the same people and companies that built the
standards. Developers like Ted Ts'o, Stuart Anderson and Dan
Quinlan and companies like Red Hat, SuSE, HP and IBM all put their
resources into this effort.

These were not efforts for simply documenting a
specification; rather, they were creating a formal comprehensive
behavioral description of the Linux system and a method for
building on to it and proving it. For example, the LSB includes
test suites for the operating system, applications and build
environment. It also includes a build environment, sample
implementation, application battery and full documentation. Here is
a breakdown of the pieces:

Written specification: defines the behavior of an
LSB-compliant operating system. It does not say which version of a
kernel, library or other core element should be used, only the ways
each piece will behave. This allows for developers to have to be
concerned only with the APIs and APIs of the operating
system.

Test suites: include tests for the operating
system, applications and build environment.

Build environment: an isolated environment that
developers chroot into to build compliant applications.

Sample implementation: an isolated environment that
developers chroot into to test run compliant applications.

About six months after the release of the complete LSB, LSB
Certification was launched. Certification gave vendors of both
Linux distributions and Linux-based applications a method for
verifying and displaying that their products adhered to the
standard. Within six weeks of launching LSB Certification,
Mandrake, Red Hat and SuSE had applied for and passed LSB
Certification.

Today, every major Linux distribution vendor has applied for
and achieved LSB Certification. The debate about fragmentation
among the Linux distributions can now come to a close. Application
developers can be assured that when they build to the LSB, their
applications will run unmodified on any LSB-Certified system. Users
will benefit from compatibility among the distributions and a
larger body of applications.

Despite its great success in the adoption of its standards,
the Free Standards Group and its LSB and Openi18n Workgroups are
not sitting still. We are moving forward in extending our existing
standards and taking on new tasks such as printing and desktop
standards.

If you have any interest in the future of Linux you can join
us. Membership is open to individuals, nonprofits (including
educational institutions), companies and government agencies. To
find out more, visit
www.freestandards.org.

Scott McNeil is
one of the founders and executive director of the Free Standards
Group.

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